Guns At Polling Places And Election Chaos: Views From HuffPost Readers

Our editors have picked some of your most thought-provoking comments from last week’s top stories.
In a recent poll, one of HuffPost members’ top-requested features was a roundup of reader comments.
In a recent poll, one of HuffPost members’ top-requested features was a roundup of reader comments.
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Every week, HuffPost editors read your comments on our top stories and highlight those that cut through the noise and make us think, help us see things from a different perspective, start conversations or even change our minds.

For a chance to be featured here, participate in the comments by clicking the gray speech bubble to the left, next to the social share icons, which will open up the comments panel.

Comments have been edited for clarity, spelling, punctuation and length.

“There is no reason for weapons — even if someone spotted a voting irregularity (highly unlikely), it’s not a violent, life or death crime. You simply call it to the attention of the poll workers. That is what they’re there for. No gun needed. Polling places should be sacrosanct and 100% gun-free.”

—Shawn Mackenzie

“I feel anyone bringing a gun to a polling place to vote should be arrested. PERIOD I do believe in the 2nd Amendment but I would ban all assault type rifles and certain areas guns should not be allowed. I believe carrying guns at a polling place constitutes voter intimidation, which should be a crime.”

—Dale Berman

“It was always about testing and tracing with coordinated containment and consistent messaging. It’s not easy to do but knowing what to do is easy because the world has had to do it before. Other countries followed the playbook and the health experts in Trump’s Administration laid it out for him. He simply refused to do what needed to be done and that’s how history will record this.”

—Vince Maxwell

“Another example of not caring about life and people dying. Granted things will get better if we have a vaccine that works and that’s always a question! In the meantime to save lives you control the virus by wearing masks, social distancing, testing and contact tracing.”

—Cliff Eckman

“There is no legal theory nor any theory of logic that would invalidate a legally completed ballot merely because of a short delay in its arrival. There of course have to be sensible limits. We can’t have ballots arriving weeks and months after an election. Voters have to exercise basic due diligence after all. But a reasonable post-election day grace period is just that, reasonable.”

—Scott Goodman

“It will be physically impossible to count all absentee ballots if they can’t be counted until election day and must be counted by the end of the day. Even in person ballots can’t be counted by midnight on election day. And turnout promises to be even bigger this year.”

—Mary Laiuppa

“Voting in the United States is largely regulated by STATE laws. Unless there is a national issue ― such as ensuring that voting is open and available to all citizens ― the Federal courts need to send suits and questions back to state courts entirely. What this Federal court has done is go beyond its jurisdictional powers.”

—Mary Goshert

“These kinds of ad-hoc law actions are going to produce extreme behavior which really frightens me.”

—Sandra Willis

“The fact that they want to change rules that were in place when voting started is completely wrong. Once voting begins voters should have an expectation that the rules will not change. This is the very definition of voter suppression.”

—Stephen Michel

“Don’t forget, this country has a long history of denying people the right to vote, including women, Blacks, and now urban populations.”

—Leroy Payne

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